Hard Country I & II Exhibitions – 2003 & 2005

HARD COUNTRY I & II

Broken Hill Regional Gallery and Westside Gallery

New works in a variety of media based on outback Australia.

“This exhibition, ‘Hard Country – Museings II’ is the second of two related exhibitions and is supported by the ‘Museings’ catalogue available in the Gallery free of charge. Hard Country refers to the Broken Hill area and tries to capture a sense of the environment from both a spiritual and historical perspective. There is also elements of this in other non-Broken Hill paintings as most of the works are related to the outback in some way. The Hard Country motif is a vehicle for personal interpretation from a range of cultural and social points of view and is reproduced in many forms. These works explore the differences that occur in imagery and meaning due to variations in size and media.”

Terry Cutcliffe – Director, Westside Gallery

“Traditional landscape painting – of bringing indoors what is out the window is not a true reflection on how we interact with this land. This is ancient land, around Broken Hill it is the land of the Paakantyi Nation where people lived as one with the environment, where the connectedness transcended past the visual towards the soul. Peter’s work reminds me of remembering my soul when I think of the environment that surrounds me.”

Jacqui Hemsley, – Gallery Manager, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery

“Broken Hill can be viewed in many different lights and in some ways can be seen as a metaphor for other economies. Is Broken Hill moving on to a bright future based on new economic and cultural initiatives or is it a rusting metal hulk of an economy left to crumble in the desert? Broken Hill and its population has been the largest contributor to the Australian economy providing some 70 billion dollars over the last century. What is its future?”